International Relations Essays Global Culture

International Relations Essays Global CultureWhat is meant by a world(a) flori finish and how and why do transnational corporations contactk to raise much(prenominal) a floriculture?A orbiculate culture can be seen in cardinal of two ways. One suggests that todays communication theory and technologies deliver a more open spread of culture near the world citizenry in far corners of the globe ar equal to be aw be of and share each others culture. It is a view that sees globular culture as chiefly positive something that encourages transmutation and a motley of culture and has enabled people around the world to overcome national boundaries to wed common causes. The more common perception of global culture is that of a Western, predominantly American culture gradually imposing itself around the world, a great deal to the detriment of long established local cultures. For analysts opposed to globalization this shell of global culture is slowly killing diversity and devastating traditional ways of life. Scholte suggests that this viewpoint is thatGlobalisation introduces a single world culture centred on consumerism, mass media, Americana and the English language (p23 Scholte 2000). It is this type of global culture in special(a) that transnational companies are linked to and are generally happy to promote.Transnational companies pitch become economic super posts as globalisation has spread and the development of a global culture is seen to benefit them economically. sure enough the potential wealth that the transnationals can offer to indigenous populations can interest precedence over the upholding of local tradition and culture. The basic human liking to accumulate wealth can often override heathenish, ethnic and spiritual factors when transnational companies set their sights on economic refinement in a particular area.A global culture involves the spread of habitual heathen icons around the globe, often diluting and overriding lo cal cultures with the threat that the vast ethnical diversity that the world offers will one day be underwater beneath a dull uniformity. Advances in technology and communications bedevil helped propagate ethnic globalisation. Digital communication, satellite television set and the Internet are methods of communication that can overcome any national boundaries or administration control as Held and McGrew writeMany national controls over randomness have become ineffective. People everywhere are exposed to the set of other cultures as never before (p17, Held and McGrew 2003).Deregulation of media experienceership along with technological advances combined in the latter decades of the twentieth century to allow the largest media companies to establish networks in umpteen countries. This media influence gives companies the opportunity to promote their profess cultural preferences and it is notable that the global media is dominated by the same octonary transnational media com panies that dominate the US media General Electric, ATT Media, Disney, Time Warner, Sony, News Corporation, Viacom Seagram and Bertelsmann (p261 Held and McGrew 2003). These companies crisply seek to become global players the US market is largely demonstrable and the global markets provide better opportunities for expansion and getting ahead of the contention Time Warner predict that non-US sales will yield the major(ip)ity of their revenue within the next decade.With the global expansion of US media companies comes the global expansion of US culture. The personnel of Hollywood is one of the prime examples of cultural globalisation with an American agenda. A seemingly endless line of films promoting an American cultural and political agenda emanate from Hollywood and have driven free lance film making in many regions either out of product line or underground. Some countries such(prenominal) as Norway, Mexico and entropy Africa have seen politics subsidies try to support d omestic film production companies, whilst the success of the Indian Bollywood film industry is one of few examples of cinema audiences resisting the spread of a global culture. The economic benefits to the transnationals can be huge. Cable and digital television channels across the globe are owned by the major transnational companies and are hugely important parts of their revenue streams. major Hollywood studios were expecting revenue from global TV rights to their film libraries to have exceeded $11 billion by the end of 2002 (p261 Held and McGrew 2003).The marketing power of the transnational companies covers that the values, brands and culture of the US are spread globally. Some of the largest brands generate money that outstrips many national economies Coca Colas brand for example was estimates by a brand consultancy to be worth $68.9 billion. (p119 Legrain 2002) The continuing expansion of such brands through the development of a global culture is something certain to eman ation the profits of the transnationals. Writers on globalisation such as Naomi Klein in particular link brands to global culture and the influence of the transnationals. She writesPower, for a brand-driven company, is not reach by collecting assets per se, but by projecting ones brand idea onto as many surfaces of the culture as affirmable (New Statesman 24 Jan 2000). This view of those opposed to globalisations suggests that propelling popular cultural icons into established cultures and forcing homogenous culture to take a back behind to Western culture is very much the aim of transnational companies. Certainly, the marginalization and dilution of local cultures through the efforts of Western media and brand marketing is a concern. Lloyd Fernando writes ominouslyThe world is truly eclectic and simultaneous these days and Marshal Macluhans deterministic vision of us all being plugged into one vast electrical organism like domestic animals at a a trough is far too close for us to trick at (P111 Mittelman and Othman 2001).The spread of the English language is another aspect of a global culture that transnational companies promote. In addition to Western films, music and media being promoted across the globe in an attempt to dominate popular culture, the ability to speak English is becoming seen as practically a necessity to get on in many of the worlds poorer nation financial and economic institutions worldwide are adopting English and it is progressively difficult to operate in the worlds markets without the language. Mandal statesGlobalizers actively promote English as a purely functional and even sluggish language that is synonymous with economic growth, technological advancement and modernity as a whole (p120 Mittelman and Othman 2001) and it is clear that non-governmental organisations such as the IMF and World coast largely support the transnational companies in their promotion of English as a global language. Much of their analysis of the econ omic crisis in in the south East Asia in the 1990s suggests that the countries in the region that recovered trounce were those that had made the most progress in introducing the English language into the culture. across the globe, governments are accepting this aspect of global culture in South Korea large scale English villages are being developed for locals to duck themselves into the language, whilst the Mongolian government, in a country landlocked by Russia and chinaware has announced long term plans to make English its primary min language.One of the greatest fears of those opposed to cultural globalisation is that it offers English language and western culture as something to aspire to whilst abandoning traditional culture. Hirst and Thompson write that subject cultures that aim to be dominant over the individual that belong to them are increasingly projects of resistance to and retreat from the world (p266 Hirst and Thompson 2000) in effect, people and cultures that do not embrace the Western led global culture are seen as conservative, suspicious and most probably less likely to see investment from transnational companies.Globalisation is not going to go away, neither are the huge transnational companies. Some see the growth of a global culture and the wealth and opportunity that these huge organisations can drive as something for which diversity of culture can be sacrificed. They also argue, correctly, that people wherever they live do have a choice. Whatever the power of western marketing, if people across the globe choose to maintain their own culture and reject global or western culture, they have the power to do so. Others anticipate to argue that cultural globalisation in itself promotes diversity and a respect for other cultures. Those opposed to globalisation remain powerfully opposed to the spread of the stereotypical McDonalds and Coke culture that personifies Western and especially American culture. For transnational companies, p rofits are the bottom line and recurrent expansion across the globe is one of the best ways to ensure that they continue to make a profit. Transnational companies, rightly or wrongly, have little concern for the protection of local culture if a global culture will ensure that more of their products are sold, they will continue to promote it.BibliographyJan Aart Scholte, Globalization A Critical Introduction, Macmillan Press Limited, London 2002Philippe Legrain, apply World The Truth About Globalisation, Abacus, Great Britain, 2002Robert McChesney, The New Global Media in Held and McGrew The Global Transformations Reader, Polity Press, Cambridge 2002Naomi Klein, Tyranny of the Brands, article New Statesman, 24 January 2000 pack H Mittelman and Norani Othman, Capturing Globalisation, Routledge, London 2001Paul Hirst and Grahame Thompson, Globalisation in Question, Polity Press, Cambridge 2000Christopher Cook, man Dignity Needs Protection, article at www.populist.com/00.2.cook.htm l